5 things you can do about climate change

By Elizabeth Landau, CNN

Updated 5:09 PM ET, Tue May 6, 2014

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Photos:Climate change: 10 countries most at risk

10th most at risk: Ethiopia – A farmer and his children plant a field with bean seeds and fertilizer in southern Ethiopia in 2008, a year after severe floods destroyed most of the food crop. Ethiopia is the country 10th most vulnerable to climate change effects, according to a 2013 report by Maplecroft.

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Photos:Climate change: 10 countries most at risk

9th most at risk: Philippines – Manila, capital of the Philippines, is one of the five cities, all in Asia and all projected to be centers of high economic growth, that face "extreme risk" from climate change impacts, according to the Maplecroft report.

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Photos:Climate change: 10 countries most at risk

8th most at risk: Cambodia – Cambodia is among the Southeast and South Asian countries tipped to face an increased risk of severe flooding because of projected changes in seasonal rainfall.

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Photos:Climate change: 10 countries most at risk

7th most at risk: DR Congo – A fisherman sits in a boat on the shore of Lake Kivu in Goma in August. "There are no big fish because of the gas; we only catch small whitebait," one said of the carbon dioxide and methane that saturate the lake.

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Photos:Climate change: 10 countries most at risk

6th most at risk: Nigeria – Floodwaters course through Odo Ona in Nigeria's Oyo State in 2011. At least 102 people were killed when a dam burst during torrential rain.

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Photos:Climate change: 10 countries most at risk

5th most at risk: South Sudan – Tainted water pours into a containment pond in a Unity field processing facility in what is now South Sudan, where there are concerns about the environmental damage being caused by the oil industry.

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Photos:Climate change: 10 countries most at risk

4th most at risk: Haiti – Residents of Jacmel, Haiti, make their way through floodwaters as Tropical Storm Isaac dumps heavy rains in August 2012. An extreme exposure to climate-related events, combined with poor health care access, weak infrastructure, high levels of poverty and an over-reliance on agriculture have led to the country being categorized as at "extreme" risk.

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Photos:Climate change: 10 countries most at risk

3rd most at risk: Sierra Leone – Felled trees lie on the mountainside just outside Freetown. African countries account for 14 of the 20 most at-risk nations.

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Photos:Climate change: 10 countries most at risk

2nd most at risk: Guinea-Bissau – Residents walk past the Parliament in Bissau, capital of Guinea-Bissau. African countries rank as at high risk in the index, partly due to their natural susceptibility to events such as floods, droughts, fires, storms or landslides. But their high ranking is also a product of the vulnerability of the population and the inadequacies of existing infrastructure to adapt to or tackle climate change challenges because of weak economies, governance, education and health care.

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Photos:Climate change: 10 countries most at risk

Most at risk: Bangladesh – Bangladeshis attempt to stay dry above flood waters in the capital, Dhaka. Bangladesh was ranked by Maplecroft the country most vulnerable to climate change, and Dhaka the world's most vulnerable city, due to its exposure to threats such as flooding, storm surge, cyclones and landslides, its susceptible population and weak institutional capacity to address the problem.

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Story highlights

Climate expert: Most important thing is to inform yourself

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Buy an energy efficient vehicle

Climate change isn't something in the far-off future: It's a potentially disastrous reality that's already starting to have effects that are expected to worsen, experts say.

Longer summers and heavier rainfalls are some of the impacts Americans are already seeing, according to the National Climate Assessment. We should expect more flooding, wildfires and drought.

The report, a new White House update released Tuesday, calls for urgent action on climate change.

The most powerful way that the average person can combat climate change is to become informed about it, says J. Marshall Shepherd, former president of the American Meteorological Society and professor at the University of Georgia.

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"Obviously, it makes sense for people to be as efficient and green as possible in their thinking on a day-to-day basis," he said. "But where I think the biggest impact that individuals can have is: Becoming climate literate."

If you educate yourself about what's going on with climate change and what can be done about it, you can make more informed choices when it comes time to vote for the people with the power to make big decisions.

"Where the biggest impacts on our planet will be, will come from large-scale policy changes and solutions that are influenced by who's in office," he said.

Only read trusted and verified sources of information about climate change, Shepherd said. He recommends the websites climate.gov and Climate Central (of which he is a board member) for essential facts and resources.

Learn about various responses to climate change that policy makers are discussing:

-- Adaptation means responding to the consequences of climate change -- for instance, building seawalls to prepare for rising sea levels around vulnerable cities.

-- Geoengineering means changing the Earth itself to counteract climate change -- which would include hypothetical technological interventions such as putting large mirrors in space or changing our oceans to absorb more carbon dioxide, Shepherd said.

Beyond reading up on the issues, you can still do a small part to influence the big environmental picture.

Your green strategies in your daily life can have a small impact, but the whole planet has to be on board for dealing with climate change in order to instigate global effects. Even if everyone in the United States reduced their emissions, other countries that continue to dump carbon dioxide into the air would still contribute to warming temperatures and rising sea levels.

Spread the word about climate change and educating people. The EPA recommends that students give presentations on climate change and encourage their institutions to increase energy efficiency.

Find out if your community has a climate action plan. There may be ways you can contribute to local efforts to be greener and adapt to potential changes that a warming world would bring.

Bottom line: Most of the public will never read the full National Climate Assessment, Shepherd said. But if you arm yourself with correct information, you can make informed choices that could affect your community and the planet at large.